The purpose of this blog will be to introduce a variety of topics relating to genealogical research topics and Northwest Ohio. Topics will be updated on a regular basis and input is always welcome.

Sunday, March 03, 2013

Newspaper- Chronicling America

With the advancements in computer technology the ability to search newspapers word by word has become a excellent tool for doing genealogy research. One of the best sites that I have found recently was created by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in coordination with the Library of Congress. The project itself is call Chronicling America. It is a wonderful project.

The site does not cover all fifty states, but does have many newspapers from the state of Ohio. At last count it was fifty four papers from all over the state. The scope of the total collection is from 1690 to present. Quality of the scans is outstanding and more are being added. This is a excellent source for our research and play a important if they have a paper for a particular area you are researching.

When using the site it is better to narrow your search in the beginning to the geographic location where your family was located. I was surprised with a name search you could come up with articles that were not from the geographic area, but were picked up by the national new sources. This was very common in the newspaper's of the time to fill space from all over the country.

Start your search by selecting the name you wish to search. I found the best search by using the exact phrase to do your search. You have several methods though to conduct the search. Once you look at the page the words you were looking for are highlighted. If the article is of interest you can clip it and save it in a PDF format. Make sure that the article is properly sourced so you know where you got it and you can come back to it if necessary.

The site can be found at http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/. Enjoy this it is a treasure.

1 comment:

I've heard this is a good site, but I haven't tried it yet. I do wish they would collect more newspapers from SC. This kind of search is on my radar! Thank you for explaining more about how to use it -- by surname or location.